I was finishing up a rush edit for a client last Tuesday when my laptop charger just gave out with a pop and a burning smell. Battery was at 12% and I had no backup charger because I thought that was overkill. Had to drive 20 minutes to the nearest Best Buy in Portland and drop $79 on a new one while my file sat half saved. Now I keep a spare in my bag for sick days when I can't afford to run out for anything. Has anyone else been caught without a simple backup like this?
I was reading some medical blog last week called something like 'Fever Science' and it said your core temp can actually drop a half degree before you even feel the fever kick in. That kind of blew my mind because I always assumed the chills were just the fever starting. Turns out your body is doing this whole complicated thing where it resets its thermostat and you shiver to generate heat. For freelancers like us, that first hour of feeling weird is probably when we should shut the laptop and rest, not push through. I tracked my temp with a cheap oral thermometer during my last cold and I swear I felt awful a full two hours before the reading showed 100. Has anyone else noticed that delay between feeling bad and actually having a fever? Makes me wonder if I should just call it quits earlier.
I used to buy into that hustle mentality hard. Like if I had a cold I'd still power through emails and edits. Thought it made me tough or dedicated or whatever. Then I tracked my output over a couple years. When I worked sick, I'd get maybe 3 hours of real work done across a 10 hour day because I kept making mistakes and redoing stuff. Total waste. Now I just take the sick day, sleep, and I'm back to full 6 hour productive days in like 2 days instead of dragging it out for a week. I actually make more money per month this way. Has anyone else tracked the actual hours lost from trying to work through being sick?